Monday, June 13, 2011

Patient or Doctor?

Over the years Grace has probably had close to one hundred doctors. Most have been average, some haven't been helpful, one almost cost her her life, but then there have been those few special doctors that I'll never forget.
One YOUNG man was a doctor at Shriner's Hospital. Grace was probably about six and went in for a simple heel cord extension to help her walk easier. It was a quick 20 minute procedure that turned into our first nightmarish brush with death for Grace. She caught pneumonia on the operating table, came out of surgery unable to breathe without being intubated and on a ventilator. At this time the doctors were frantically trying to come up with some miracle drug to help her gain some strength as she lay in ICU.
Along came this doctor. He looked like he was maybe 12 years old. I honestly had no clue he was a doctor the first time I saw him. He looked more like a patient. I never saw this little man  in the room with Grace. He was at the nurses station every night surrounded by the biggest books I'd ever seen. I don't think he ever said two words to my husband or myself. He was just buried in those gigantic books.
We were terrified, as Grace just didn't seem to be improving much.
After about two weeks, we came in one morning and everyone had different expressions on their faces. When we walked in Grace's room we were shocked! Grace was kicking her feet, swinging her legs around in that bed. Now I realize this doesn't seem like much to most people, but Grace couldn't do this normally, not only had she been much weaker, but she had huge casts on both legs.
That lil doctor read through all those books and discovered another case similar to Grace's, this told them which medications to try. After just one dose Grace's strength improved immensely. The nurses told us that the doctors were all but rolling cartwheels down the halls that morning when they'd checked on her.
Now I'm a Christian and let me tell you there were many prayers being said for Grace and for the right doctors to come her way. I'm a little embarrassed when I admit that when I saw that young man searching through those medical books every night I had no idea how hard he was working, and I never expected God to use some little snot nosed looking boy to find the help she so desperately needed. Guess that will teach me to judge a book by it's cover.

1 comment:

  1. God is among us daily and so often we don't even acknowledge it. Reminds me of that song many years ago with the lyrics "...what if God was one of us...just a stranger on the bus..."

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